Iranian Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari has warned against any plan for the inspection of the country's cargo ships, saying perpetrators will regret the act. Ghazanfari questioned West's authority to scrutinize Iranian ships and said, "Iran reserves the right to respond to inspections as any such attempts will be a move beyond the sanctions resolution," Mehr news agency reported on Friday. He also slammed the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran's nuclear program and said the new measure will fail to change the country's stance on its nuclear program. The Iranian official further pointed out that the Islamic Republic will continue to "fully" support its cargo fleet.

After about two and a half years during which the danger of war between the United States and Iran was at a relatively low level, this threat is now rapidly increasing. A pattern of political and diplomatic events, military deployments, and media chatter now indicates that Anglo-American ruling circles, acting through the troubled Obama administration, are currently gearing up for a campaign of bombing against Iran, combined with special forces incursions designed to stir up rebellions among the non-Persian nationalities of the Islamic Republic. Naturally, the probability of a new fake Gulf of Tonkin incident or false flag terror attack staged by the Anglo-American war party and attributed to Iran or its proxies is also growing rapidly.

UK defense secretary says American and British forces used depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. "UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003," UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on Thursday, the Kuwait News Agency reported. The announcement came after a joint study by the environment, health and science ministries in Iraq said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels of radiation and dioxins.

■ Fallujah and the laws of war
■ Horrific scenes from the ashes of Fallujah
■ Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'
■ Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime
■ Iraq: U.S. depleted uranium and surge in cancer (Photos)

WASHINGTON — Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky. In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance. Under the terms of a 2008 status of forces agreement, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, but they'll leave behind a sizable American civilian presence, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest in the world, and five consulate-like "Enduring Presence Posts" in the Iraqi hinterlands.

Twenty-three year old rushed to hospital unconscious after being beaten with heavy metal object at Tiberias gas station, sustaining serious injuries. Suspect yet to be apprehended. The attack occurred on Tuesday night in a gas station in Tiberias. Superintendent Jacky Dan of Tiberias Police told Ynet that the investigation indicates that the young Arab man, who resides with his family in the city, was talking to a girl he knew prior to the assault. The suspect arrived at the site and the two got into an argument. The suspect angrily asked on what right was the victim talking to the woman and proceeded to hit him in the head.

If approved, amendment will enable Israeli politicians war criminals, IDF officers to travel to Britain without fear of being arrested.

Livni: Free world must differentiate between real war criminals, those who fight [state] terrorism.

Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, The Washington Post, today, arguing against civilian trials for Guantanamo detainees:

The civilized world has tried over several hundred years to establish rules of warfare so that those who wear uniforms, follow a recognized chain of command, carry their arms openly and do not target civilians are treated as prisoners of war when captured. Those who follow none of these rules are treated as war criminals, not as ordinary defendants accused of ordinary crimes and entitled to far more robust protection than war criminals.

Dana Priest and William Arkin, The Washington Post, today, on the sprawling network of private corporations performing core U.S. military and intelligence functions:

Private contractors working for the CIA have recruited spies in Iraq, paid bribes for information in Afghanistan and protected CIA directors visiting world capitals. Contractors have helped snatch a suspected extremist off the streets of Italy, interrogated detainees once held at secret prisons abroad and watched over defectors holed up in the Washington suburbs. . . . Contractors kill enemy fighters. They spy on foreign governments and eavesdrop on terrorist networks. They help craft war plans. They gather information on local factions in war zones. . . .

More than a week of abnormal cold has chilled Argentina and other parts of South America, leaving rare snow, rewriting record books and causing hypothermia deaths. The outbreak began more than one week ago with biting winds out of Antarctica chilling southernmost Chile and Argentina, a land known as Patagonia. The cold outbreak set up the Andean region for deep snow. In the Chilean district of Aysen, the snowstorm was said to be worst in 30 years and left more than 2 feet of snow on the ground at both Coihaique and Balmaceda. According to a meteorologist at MetSul, a weather service in southern Brazil, snow accumulation to 5 feet was reported from Balmaceda. The Army were called upon to rescue people trapped by the snow. Snow spread northward in Argentina along the eastern side of the Andes. Mendoza, a region known for its wine, not snow, had snow said to be the heaviest in a decade. Rare snow whitened the resort beaches of Mar del Plata on the morning of July 15. Snow was seen for the first time in living memory in parts of Santiago del Estero, the MetSul meteorologist said. In the far north, one town of Tucuman had snow for the first time since 1921. In all, nearly every province of Argentina experienced at least a little snow, an unusual event.

On any given day in Egypt, a U.S. ally with a much-criticized human rights record, citizens who cross the nation’s security forces may be subject to brutal violence, according to a leading human rights organization here. Complaints arrive daily: An 18-year-old man was beaten in a police station and thrown off a third floor balcony. Another man was punched and flogged. Earlier, a family was dragged to the police station, where the father was beaten and the women were threatened with rape. These and hundreds more allegations have been logged into Egypt’s “torture diary,” a chronicle of claimed transgressions compiled by the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, an independent victims advocacy group.

Archaeologists have discovered a second henge at Stonehenge, described as the most exciting find there in 50 years. The circular ditch surrounding a smaller circle of deep pits about a metre (3ft) wide has been unearthed at the world-famous site in Wiltshire. Archaeologists conducting a multi-million pound study believe timber posts were in the pits. Project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Birmingham, said the discovery was "exceptional". The new "henge" - which means a circular monument dating to Neolithic and Bronze Ages - is situated about 900m (2,950ft) from the giant stones on Salisbury Plain.

Two Spanish activists have filed a court case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Manuel Tapial and Laura Arau, who were arrested in the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound humanitarian convoy in May, lodged their complaint against Netanyahu, six of his cabinet members and the Israeli navy commander at Spain's National Court on Friday. The activists say they were illegally arrested in international waters, tortured and forcibly returned to Turkey. Nine civilian activists were killed and many others were wounded after Israeli commandos attacked the Turkish-flagged flotilla on May 31. The brutal attack sent shockwaves across the world and raised global calls for an international investigation into the incident as well as an immediate end to the more than three-year-long blockade of Gaza.

A former Israeli lecturer has said the entity depends on wars for its existence, warning that the hostility only invites disaster for Tel Aviv. It is only constant confrontations and standoffs which keep the Israeli society from falling apart, said Ilan Pappe, who used to work as a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa in northern Israel. He also said that the current Israeli government is the result of a colonialist movement. Colonialists, who did not have a country anywhere across the world, were obliged to remain here. The Israeli regime, therefore, is constantly seeking to ignite new wars; against Lebanon and maybe soon against Iran, but future wars would not succeed and would instead lead the entity into disaster, he added, speaking to the German daily junge Welt last month.

junge Welt: Ein Staat des Dialogs. Die israelische Gesellschaft ist alles andere als homogen. [...] In der israelischen Gesellschaft gibt es keine Solidarität. Es herrscht Kapitalismus pur. Für gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt sorgen lediglich die permanenten Konflikte, in denen sich das Land befindet. Deshalb zettelt das Regime ständig neue Kriege an. Gegen den Libanon und vielleicht bald gegen den Iran. Doch die künftigen Kriege werden keine erfolgreichen sein, sondern das Land in die Katastrophe führen.

[...] Aber noch einmal: Die israelische Gesellschaft ist nicht homogen. Im übrigen gibt es bei uns den einen Staat bereits – in Form eines Apartheidstaates. Und es ist wahrscheinlich leichter, einen Regimewechsel in einem Staat durchzuführen, als zwei Staaten zu schaffen. Es wird schwieriger werden als in Südafrika, und es wird auch nicht gleich im ersten Anlauf gelingen. Aber ich glaube nicht, daß das an der Geschlossenheit der israelischen Gesellschaft liegt. Es ist die Vorstellung, sich ständig im Krieg zu befinden, welche die Gesellschaft so geschlossen erscheinen läßt.